International Women's Day - a Clarion call for India

International Women’s Day is celebrated the world over on March 8^th every year.  This day seeks to celebrate the achievements of women across all fields – economic, social, political, cultural or in the personal front.  It is also a day to create awareness and is a call for action - to bring about parity in gender.

While gender parity has been achieved to a great extent in developed countries like the USA and in Europe, India still has a long way to go.  We don’t have to look too far to see the disparity that exists.  Every maid working in Indian households will give you the real picture – where the husband comes back home, drunk and tottering, demanding money and sex.  And if he is refused, he immediately slaps the woman and starts a fight.  Their little children are mute witnesses to this injustice and suffer the wrath of the drunken father, their psyche scarred for ever.      

For every Kalpana who has bravely and successfully flown into outer space, there are thousands of ‘Kalpanas’ in our villages who have not crossed the thresholds of their homes to enter the gates of a school.  For every Mary who has trained and fought diligently in the boxing ring, there are thousands of ‘Marys’ who have been pushed into early and unhappy marriages or who have been pawned off to brothels.   For every Kiran and every Aishwarya who have grown successful businesses and who have attained international acclaim in beauty pageants, there are thousands of Indian girls who are victims of acid attack, whose beauty has been brutally peeled away, mutilating them forever; and several whose young lives have been quashed for not providing the necessary dowry. For every Lata who has enthralled millions with her beautiful voice, there are thousands of ‘Latas’ whose woeful cries and plaintive voice remains unheard.

Ours is a culture that celebrates womanhood, that reveres ‘Shakhti’, that acknowledges, welcomes and worships ‘Devis’.  When Lord Shiva is depicted as ArdhaNarishvara, Shiva and Parvathi are portrayed as equals - both co-exist to form the whole.  Despite such high philosophies in our scriptures, we turn a blind and often hateful eye when we view our women.   Why do we treat our womenfolk worse than animals?  

Women’s Day is truly a clarion call - a call for all of us to rise up, and to quell the atrocities against women. Until women are first and foremost recognized as human beings and treated fairly, we will have to consider every day as Women’s Day; and work towards their betterment.    Just as King Porus, though bound in chains and captured by Alexander, bravely answered that he wanted to be treated as an equal, similarly too,  Indian women should be able to stand up on their feet, and look into the eyes of men – not as their tormentors or masters but as their equals.  Only then can we really celebrate Women’s Day.